[Drew]

Right. I can't ask the manufacturers as Evesham computers don't exist any more.

I bought my laptop off eBay, and everything is fine, except that the sound doesn't work. So my query is how do I find out what drivers I might need to install, or what else could I do to get the sound working?

Cheers, Drew.

[Bubba]

control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager

Is there a soundcard shown? Is it enabled? Any yellow "?"s in device manager?

[Drew]

control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager

Is there a soundcard shown? Is it enabled? Any yellow "?"s in device manager?

No, and no 

[slackline]

Are the speakers working on the laptop?  Try plugging some headphones on and making some noise (play a tune) and if you can hear it through the headphones but not through the laptops internal speakers then you've sussed out whats fooked  

[Drew]

Are the speakers working on the laptop?  Try plugging some headphones on and making some noise (play a tune) and if you can hear it through the headphones but not through the laptops internal speakers then you've sussed out whats fooked  

Speakers/headphones don't work either.

[Bubba]

Probably no soundcard?

Boot into bios and check that onboard sound is enabled usually f1 or del as the pc is rebooting.

[Drew]

I don't know if it's significant, but I don't have one of those speaker symbols in the toolbar, next to the time.

[slackline]

I don't know if it's significant, but I don't have one of those speaker symbols in the toolbar, next to the time.

That could just be indicative of the sound application not starting when logging in.

control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager

Is there a soundcard shown? Is it enabled? Any yellow "?"s in device manager?

Under the device manager is there a "Sound, video and game controllers" section as opposed to looking for a plain soundcard?

If there is is there a -/+ symbol next to it?  If + then click on it and expand the tree and if there is a soundcard in your laptop it should be listed there.  If theres nothing there then you almost definately don't have a soundcard, but check the BIOS as Bubba describes (sometimes F2 or F11, although one of them will tend to get you into the boot sequence menu, but can't remember which and it depends on the BIOS anyway).

[Jim]

what laptop is it and are you running windows xp?
go to control panel and is there a sounds and audio devices icon?

[Drew]

what laptop is it and are you running windows xp?
go to control panel and is there a sounds and audio devices icon?

Evesham Green 556E Laptop, running XP.

The icon is there. When open, it says No Audio Device.

[slackline]

what laptop is it and are you running windows xp?
go to control panel and is there a sounds and audio devices icon?

Evesham Green 556E Laptop, running XP.

The icon is there. When open, it says No Audio Device.

Then you almost definately don't have any sound card (onboard or dedicated device).  The one final check is as Bubba wrote, to check that its enabled in your BIOS.